Robert Coles (settler) facts for kids

Robert Coles (c. 1600 – 1655) was a 17th-century New England colonist who is known for the scarlet-letter punishment he received in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and his role in establishing the Providence Plantations, now the state of Rhode Island.

Coles arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1630 on the Winthrop Fleet where he became a first settler of the towns of Roxbury and Agawam, now Ipswich, and an early settler of Salem. After repeated fines for drunkenness, he was ultimately sentenced to wear a red letter "D" as a badge of shame for a year, an event that may have served as an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter.

He left Massachusetts Bay to join Roger Williams at Providence where he was one of the new colony's 13 original proprietors and a founding member of the First Baptist Church in America. In the Providence Plantations he was a first settler of Pawtuxet and an early settler of Shawomet, now the Rhode Island towns of Cranston and Warwick.

His greatest achievement, however, was his co-authorship of the Plantation Agreement at Providence of 1640. Ratified by both men and women in Providence, it established the first secular, representative democracy in America.

After Coles's death his family moved to Long Island, New York. Three of his sons founded the city of Glen Cove, New York, while three of his daughters married into the Townsend family who engaged in civil disobedience to promote the separation of church and state.

Family

Robert Coles, whose ancestry remains unknown, was born c. 1600 probably in England. He and his first wife, Mary, appeared together for the first time in the records of the Roxbury church. Because Mary's death was recorded in an undated note in Roxbury church records, it is thought she died before he moved to Providence. His second wife, Mary Hawxhurst (c. 1602–1656), was the daughter of Sampson Hawxhurst (1571–1627), vicar of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and Elizabeth. After Robert Coles's death, Mary Hawxhurst married Matthias Harvey and moved to Oyster Bay on Long Island.

Coles had at least seven children, four of whom were under 18 years of age when he died. His children by his first wife, Mary, were John Coles (m. Ann), Deliverance Coles (m. Richard Townsend), and Ann Coles (m. Henry Townsend). His children by his second wife, Mary Hawxhurst, were Daniel Coles (m. Mahershalalhasbaz Gorton, daughter of Samuel Gorton), Nathaniel Coles (m. Martha Jackson, Deborah Wright, Sarah Harcurt), Sarah Coles (m. Captain Thomas Townsend), and Captain Robert Coles Jr. (m. Mercy Wright).

Coles died intestate in 1655 in Warwick, Providence Plantations. The Warwick town council settled his debts and distributed net assets of about £400 (about US$114,000 in 2022) to his heirs. The settlement included the sale of the "Mill of Warwick" and land in Pawtuxet to establish a trust worth £170 (about US$48,400 in 2022) for his minor children.

Three of Coles's daughters married into the Townsend family. The Townsends came to Warwick after conflicts over religious liberty with authorities in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Ann Coles's husband, Henry Townsend, was fined and imprisoned more than once in New Netherland for hosting Quaker meetings and for political agitation. He signed the Flushing Remonstrance in 1657 to protest the persecution of Quakers and others in New Netherland. A year later Ann Coles was charged with support of the "odious sect." The Townsends later settled in Oyster Bay, which was out of Dutch jurisdiction.

Three of Coles's sons—Robert Jr., Nathaniel, and Daniel Coles—were original proprietors of Musketa Cove Plantation, now the city of Glen Cove, New York, near Oyster Bay. The home that Robert Coles Jr. built there in 1668 still stands.

Notable descendants

The notable descendants of Robert Coles include industrialist Walter Chrysler (1875–1940) who founded the Chrysler Corporation, novelist Miriam Coles Harris (1834–1925), American Revolutionary War spies Robert Townsend (1753–1838) and Sarah "Sally" Townsend (1760–1842) who were siblings and members of the secret Culper Ring, spy Jesse Coles (1757–1839) who was captured while carrying a message to General Washington, and Robert R. Coles (1907–1985) who was chairman of the Hayden Planetarium.